This summer has been good to me so far. Fishing and otherwise. Unfortunately(or fortunately in this case?) two weeks ago I started a couple online courses for school which I originally thought would slow down my summer activities. Sure, I can't fish 24/7 since I have work to do every day, but I still found some time to fish.

A couple times during the past two weeks I found myself heading up to the family cabin. I was able to relax and do my school work with nobody around to distract me, and I also managed to get a lot of fishing in. I needed some alone time to study and I was able to scratch a few creeks off the list. Some of the other creeks I fished before, but the past two weeks have been eye opening on those streams as well. A few surprises, and a few BIG trout.....I only wish they would have been at the end of my line. One of the days I even had the pleasure of joining the PFBC to electrofish a creek I frequent off and on throughout the year. Good time.

The first creek I fished once before. Got into a good number of wild browns, including a few nice ones, and some decent brookies. The fishing was much slower this time..........but browns will do that to ya. I still managed a few small fish and two little brookies. The fishing wasn't spectacular but it's always worth the hike to fish these types of streams...

The next creek has a decent number of wild trout, but it also stocked by the PFBC. I managed to get the trifecta here! Well, if you include stockies.. I'm pretty sure the bow was stocked but it's fins were very clean and sharp. Definitely one of the better rainbows I've seen from this stream. Also got a few small wild browns, a stocked brown, and two wild brookies(which aren't that common there).

This little brown stuck around for a few pics

The next day I made a trip to a stream that has a pretty good population of trout, though they aren't easy. The big ones stayed hidden today, but I managed a good amount of small wild browns and one stockie that strayed in from farther downstream. A parachute adams is all I needed.

After a break for lunch I hit another nearby stream. I checked this creek out before but didn't spend a lot of time on it. It started out rough as some ducks screwed up with first few pools. After the ducks finally went on dry land I managed to hook into a good number of fish. Getting them to eat my flies was easy, but hooking them was another story! With the very thick brush it was impossible to get a good hookset. Lost too many fish, and of course I spooked a bunch as well. Tough little creek. Fished another section further upstream which was much more fishable, but the fish weren't as abundant.

Monday I had the opportunity to electrofish a stream with the PFBC. We arrived at the first stream to find muddy conditions, so we went to Plan B. The sections we shocked on this creek can be decent for stockies earlier in the season, but by now most of them are fished out or moved farther up or downstream. This section also has a low population of wild trout........including some hawgs. I've caught and have seen some real bruisers in other parts of the creek but I was caught off guard when we turned up some pretty good fish in this section. Including one over 20in! Out of a pool I have only ever gotten piles of stockies out of. Definitely a fun experience...

Tuesday morning the streams I originally wanted to fish were chocolate milk. Even the very shallow riffles and side channels had zero visibility. The area definitely got more rain overnight than what I expected. So I was off to explore a few new creeks...

This very tiny stream is a trib to a bigger, very popular stocked stream. I have no clue if it's on the natural reproduction list, and it doesn't even have a name! As I found out it had a decent number of trout for it's size, including a few nice ones. Mostly brookies but also a couple little browns. One brookie viciously attacked a little brown as I was bringing it in!!! Wish I got that on film. A couple casts later(after switching to a small streamer) I managed to catch the brookie as well.

The biggest pool on the stream...

This guy was hungry! Tried to eat the brown in the next pic

I fished one more stream before lunch. This creek isn't stocked, but I figured it may have some decent wild fish. I had one good hit but no fish landed. Perfect flow for tossing streamers but things never materialized. Gonna give it another shot when it's lower...

That afternoon I fished another nearby stream. It is known more for it's stocked fish, though I didn't catch any stockies there. The one brown had me thinking but it has a pretty distinct eye spot and overall the fins looked pretty good.

I wound up at the mouth of a small tributary and worked may way up it until I saw some posted signs. Only got one fish out of the trib, but it was a dandy!

Also managed a decent fish out of the junction pool...

Yesterday I fished another stream in the area. I fished this one once a few years ago on the season opener actually. Got a pile of stockies but I always wanted to fish it more. Got two stocked fish right away in the "bridge hole" then I started working my way up and downstream. It turns out this stream has a decent population of wild fish as well.

As I was working my way downstream I found what looked like a tiny trib running through the brush. As it turned out, I was right....

In one of the first pools this fish slammed my dry! Other than one other dink brown, this trib was very unproductive. It seemed like it would be loaded with brookies......but it wasn't. There did appear to be a bunch of piping and even a big hose running along a short length of the stream, so maybe that has something to do with the lack of fish. Plenty of good plunge pools that didn't produce any. Who knows.. After looking at different maps this creek doesn't appear on any. No little blue line, nothing... Interesting little find.

After fishing that little jump across trib I resumed fishing the bigger stream. This was the biggest of the day. Maybe it's wild, maybe it's just a good looking stockie. Put up a good fight regardless. That wasn't the biggest fish I hooked though. In one pool I had a big one that was about 20in dart out from under a rock ledge and slam my fly!! That really got my heart racing. Didn't get a good hookset on him though and lost the fish right away. I know where he lives though!!

The monster's lair...

Good time on the water, and I needed an escape. Despite climbing over big boulders it was a relaxing time along some beautiful streams. The water levels and temps were awesome for this time of year.